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Friday, September 12. 2008

So far I've seen official reports of unsolicited absentee ballots from Florida (see Florida Voter Caging Warning: McCain mailer w/absentee ballot requests ) Ohio and Virginia. If you get one of these "request for absentee ballots", save it and do not do anything else with it until you speak with election officials and report it to the local media. In Ohio, the McCain campaign printed and sent out about a million of these. The campaign made a mistake: the form included an unnecessary located the question asking if the voter was eligible to vote at the top of the form where it was missed by many voters. If the voter failed to check the box by the question, he or she is stating that he or she is not eligible and the application has to be rejected by law. In Virginia, the mailers left out important instructions to the voters. In Florida, snowbirds, some not republicans - received the mailers.

About one-third of the absentee ballot applications received at the Hamilton County Board of Elections have been ruled invalid because Republican Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign printed a version of the form with an extra, unneeded box on it....Even though the box is unneeded, by not checking it voters are essentially admitting they’re not eligible, Brunner said.

Secretary of state Jennifer Brunner is upset about this stunt but she is required by law to reject invalid applications. County Boards of Election in Ohio will have to contact tens of thousands of voters and ask them to fill out a new, valid form in time to vote for the Nov. 4 election.

With less than two months to go to the general election, you may be inundated with political flyers in the mail. But be careful where you put your signature.

Lynn Murdock recently received a mailer from John McCain's campaign in Arlington. It's an application for an absentee ballot; something for which she says she never asked.

...the application does raise a red flag for both officials because it doesn't include instructions.

Election officials say the instruction page is critical to making sure voters fill out the application correctly so they won't be denied. If they are, the voter would have to fill out a new application, cutting it close to the absentee deadline.

"Why is a Republican, Democrat, anybody sending out an unsolicited request?" wonders Murdock.